What we know so far about the violent riots in Britain
Britain is on fire. Just a month after taking office UK Prime Minister Kir Starmer has been forced to refer to his legal knowledge and act as a fire extinguisher to extinguish the fires that the far right lit in his country.
For six days Britain sank into chaos. The protests against immigrants were painted with blood and aimed at mosques and sheltering asylum seekers. 6,000 police officers took to the streets, converted into a war field, with molotovs, car fires, injured and the prime minister denouncing the hatred of the far right and promising a condemnation of the rioters. What happened? Who is behind the riots and what is the government’s response so far. Politico attempts to explain what is happening in Britain. Sunderland Police station is on fire as the town centre is looted #Sunderland Riots pic.twitter.com/JGgI5iDOad
— TeesPix.Photos (@TeesPix) August 2, 2024
On July 29 in the coastal city of Southport in northwestern England a children’s dance workshop, with Taylor Swift songs, was converted into a bloodbath. A 17-year-old walked into the building slaughtering little girls: 6-year-old Bebe King, 7-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and 9-year-old Alice Dasilva Aguiar, who died at the city’s Children’s Hospital. The 17-year-old arrested was born in Cardiff, from parents of Rwandan immigrants and lived in Southport. Authorities, complying with British legislation, did not name the perpetrator as he was under 18. Within fractions of a second social media was overwhelmed by false rumours about who the perpetrator was – including that he had ties to Islam and that he had sought asylum, information that was ultimately denied by Merseyside Police.
The angry, Islamophobic discontent simmering throughout the United Kingdom has surfaced. According to evidence given by the government since 2023 no religious group has faced more hate crimes associated with faith than British Muslims. More than 4 out of 10 of all recorded crimes of religious hatred were directed against Muslims. The way this girl has established ALOT of what’s gone on tone. She was one of the first to turn up, she was immediately “ready to go” I hope she’s met with the full force of the law and get caught. #sunderland #sunderlandriots #riot #riots #enoughseugh pic.twitter.com/VedJ1c1yBQ
— Chloe (@Chloejaneriaz) August 2, 2024
Members of the far-right organization English Defense League, an organization that has now been abolished, attacked with bricks against the police, during an all-night wake for minor victims, while they also dissolved the mosque in Southport. In the days following the Southport riots, new riots broke out throughout England and Northern Ireland. Opinions on immigration and asylum affected many of the rioters, who, according to the Hope not Hate defense team, occasionally used the slogan “stop the boats” – adopted by the previous conservative government as it tried to halt the migration of small vessels into the English Channel.
Several high-profile personalities, known for their far-right views, made strong comments on social media in recent days and were convicted by the government for exacerbating tensions through their posts.
Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, nicknamed Tommy Robinson, has long been one of Britain’s most important far-right and anti-Muslim activists and founded in 2009 the English Defence League (EDL) that no longer exists.
According to the Daily Mail Robinson has posted many videos from a hotel in Cyprus. Each post has been aired hundreds of thousands of times and has been communicated by far-rights around the world, including the founder of American InfoWars Alex Jones. Posts refer to “innocent English hunted” and anti-Muslim rhetoric such as “our women are not halal meat”. Laurence Fox’s competitor referred to X “for war” and to “British girls who have been raped by immigrant barbarians for decades”, a message aired over 3 million times. == sync, corrected by elderman == @elder_man Birmingham tonight. This is a show of power. Police absolute knowhow in these clips. The far right are being blamed, somehow. They’re the issue, not these guys. Terrifying times for our nation. pic.twitter.com/5zv RQMbfvy
— Darren Grimes (@darrengrimes_) August 5, 2024
The day after the Southport uprising, protesters gathered in London outside Downing Street and clashed with the police. Over the next four days violent far-right protests took place in more than 12 cities. With the exception of a demonstration in Belfast, all protests took place in England – with their main volume in cities of the Midlands and northern England, such as Blackpool, Hal, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, Bolton, Liverpool and Sunderland. In Middlesbrough, cars were burned, rockets fired against the police during riots at the city’s main war monument, the cenotaph. Both in Roderram and Tamworth, the rioters targeted hotels hosting asylum seekers. Unlike other European countries, Britain’s far right has little political organisation. While parties explicitly associated with the British far-right have previously gathered hundreds of thousands of votes in the general election and have gained representation in local councils and in the European Parliament, far-right parties have had little effect on the recent elections at any level.
The Reform U.K. –the populist right party of which Nigel leads Faraj – took distances from the riots and condemned the “levels of violence observed in the last two days”. Farage has received criticism of the conspiracy theories he has occasionally spread about the initial Southport attack. In the past, the sites that accommodate immigrants have also been targeted. Britain’s largely individualised far right uses social media to organize – and its most prominent individuals, as well as pioneers from abroad, contributed to the initial disinformation spread after the Southport attack.
WhatsApp and Telegram have been used for organizing gatherings in a short time, while leaflets for specific protests have been spread on Facebook. TikTok has been filled with videos full of violence. While many of those involved do not belong to any traditional far-right organization, they are inspired by far-right misinformation and participate in far-right activism,” said Hope not Hate.
The riots caused Kir Starmer’s anger who described the riots as “right-wing abuse” and promised to punish all involved. In the field of justice he has experience. Before becoming a legislator, Starmer was the director of Britain’s prosecution. He held this role in 2011 when the riots caused in London after the shooting of black Mark Dugan by police spread nationally. Under Starmer the British courts met overnight, as the justice system worked to convict more than 3,000 people arrested during the riots. A replay can be in the works after the three girls are slaughtered. Starmer convened on Monday an extraordinary meeting of ministers, senior officials and chief of prisons, known as COBR. In statements after the meeting he promised to raise pace in Britain’s area of criminal justice to arrest and prosecute rioters. Some reports also reported that ministers are considering 24-hour press court meetings 2011 for the rapid extradition of sentences, although Starmer’s spokesman told reporters this is a matter of justice. According to the National Council of Police Chiefs, police officers have arrested 378 people in the last week and some of them have already gone through trial. The government promised further protection for mosques, while ministers collaborate with social media and seek more action to address criminal material on their platforms.
